Over the last few weeks I see a certain poetry in two movements that have emerged: one to save Troy Davis, and end the death penalty. And another to control corporations, especially those of the financial industry, with Occupy Wall Street. The first speaks to social control, the latter to economic control -- two sides of the same coin.

The intense protests have been riveting as both online and on-the-ground activism have gained momentum and been covered by mainstream media. The efforts to save Troy Davis were tragically unsuccessful, and Wall Street continues to operate, business as usual. Still, policy and institutions that perpetuate inhumane capital punishment and corporate greed are, for the time being, under scrutiny.

The Tallest Tree in Our Forest

Presented by Hart House, the Centre for the Study of the United States, Munk School of Global Affairs, and Access and Diversity Unit in Parks Forestry and Recreation (City of Toronto)

"We must join with the tens of millions all over the world who see in peace our most sacred responsibility."

In celebration of the UN Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Hart House, the Centre for the Study of the United States, Munk School of Global Affairs, and Access and Diversity Unit in Parks Forestry and Recreation (City of Toronto) present Paul Robeson: The Tallest Tree in Our Forest, Challenging Race and Class within Toronto's Multicultural Framework.

In the lead up to the international day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, stand with migrant workers as they speak out against wage theft outside Pulse Project by Bastion.

Together with the Labour Committee from the Organizing Centre for Social and Economic Justice, 17 migrant workers are speaking out against unpaid wages owing from their former employer RDM Hudson Enterprises, who was contracted by construction company Bastion Development Corporation (on the Coast Project at UBC and Pulse Project at Maple & Broadway.)

These workers are owed $60,432 in unpaid wages, including overtime and statutory holidays. They are facing retaliation and intimidation from their former employer.

On October 17, 1988, the Supreme Court of Canada removed the last major barrier to universal suffrage in Canada, granting institutionalized mental health patients the right to vote.

People of Colour achieved this milestone in 1948, and women in 1951. Federal inmates still confronted barriers until the 1990's.